Terry Jones: ‘We will not burn the Quran’

Fla. pastor says on NBC’s ‘Today’ show that his church will never carry out the plan

Pastor Terry Jones told NBC’s “Today” show on Saturday that his church in Gainesville, Fla., would not burn Qurans in protest to the building of an Islamic center near the site of the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001.

“We will definitely not burn the Quran, no,” he said.

“Not today, not ever,” he said when pressed about whether his planned demonstration might happen at a later date. He explained that it would not happen even if the Islamic center is built near ground zero.

Jones flew to New York to appear on NBC’s “Today” show and told interviewer Carl Quintanilla that there was no meeting set up with New York Imam Faisal Rauf.

He said he hoped a meeting would take place, however.

Jones said that his church’s goal was “to expose that there is an element of Islam that is very dangerous and very radical.”

He told NBC that “we have definitely accomplished that mission.”

May a God grant peace to the families of the victims.